What has become now my earmark for the coming of summer, on a painfully beautiful day last weekend, I photographed once again for the annual Oregon Humane Society Doggie Dash.  Though my task at hand was to focus on capturing the businesses and sponsors that come out to support this amazing event, I couldn’t NOT allow myself to document participants of both the 2-legged and 4-legged variety, who did not disappoint in keeping me well entertained and inspired by their stories.

And no small feat in this browbeaten economy, OHS surpassed their fundraising goal and brought in a total of $394,274!

As they do at OHS, so shall I sign off with…. For The Animals.

Oh…did I mention the *free* mimosas?!Pulling out all the stops for fundraising efforts.“You tell anyone you saw me in this getup, and so help me dog….”

The Oregon Humane Society recently hosted their annual telethon, broadcast live on KATU2.  In one afternoon, they exceeded their fundraising goal of $320,000 and successfully adopted out 70 of their furry faced charges.

And I was there to document all that fabulous generosity + cuteness.

For the record, the last time I photographed this event, I found myself walking out with my cat Sweetpea, who has served me well {as well as cats can serve their masters}.  It took nerves of steel not to walk away from this one without Mr. Wrinkles {as you might have guessed, a sharpei mix pup} + Jasmine {a sweet as can be rabbit…I know, who knew?} tucked under each arm.  Ala Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids.

And if you haven’t overloaded on all things OHS, this coming weekend I’ll be photographing for their annual Santa Paws event…please consider bringing your furry lover to a Fred Meyer store near you to get their picture taken with Santa.

Last weekend was upside down crazy busy.  And as much as I *loved each and every job, I’ve been upside down crazy busy with edits ever since.  The upside to edits, however, being that I get to share the results with all two of you…two being the optimists guess at the number of people reading this blog {every bloggers fear}.

My Saturday started with one of my favorite events of the year, the Oregon Humane Society Doggie Dash.  Last year they had over 4,000 participants of the two-legged kind…making it at least 8,000 total if I’m doing my dog-math correctly…and this year I believe they surpassed it, raising over $300,000 to benefit Oregon animals in need.

My next event of the day was a princess party, followed by an auction to benefit Ethiopian Orphan Relief.  The thread of course being that despite the insanity of the day and corresponding mountain of edits, I was surrounded by people making other people {and pets} very happy.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

this next guy reminded me of Sgt. Floyd Pepper from Electric Mayhem…and how can you NOT smile back….

There was lots of love in the room last Thursday at the Oregon Humane Society celebration of pet and people heroes, hosted at the historic Governor Hotel.  With 350 attendees, they raised over $125,000 in less than an hour.  And amongst the five Diamond Collar honorees, all of whom make amazing contributions on behalf of fuzzy faced friends, was one who really touched me.  Maty, a three legged Australian shepherd, who once “worked” as a blood donor dog, but now [amongst other things] is a nanny dog to ferral kittens.

Hmm.  I wonder if she can come help nanny my 3 year old and 7 year old kittens of the two legged variety.

Check out this link to read more about the event and the pets + people who were honored.  And note that with the exception of Maty and Midnight, who were both recognized, all of the animals shown below are currently up for adoption at OHS!  Speaking from personal experience, pets can make life-changing companions…and occasionally, nannies.

And now for something completely different.

I never turn down an opportunity to work with the Oregon Humane Society.  It’s always guaranteed to be a blast, and given the stars of the show – completely unpredictable, and this weekend was no exception.  Santa got kissed a lot at their annual Santa Paws fundraiser, hosted by eight different Fred Meyer locations around the city.  50 fuzzy faced friends showed up Saturday at the Beaverton location for their debut with the big guy.  64 came through on Sunday at Raleigh Hills.  That’s …um….114 portraits in six hours.  And that was only two of the eight locations featuring Santa.  *Crazy, I know…I think the elves finally figured out that cloning thing.

Thank you so much for all the generous souls who shared their time and their friends with us!

Santa’s Apprentice“…and a partridge in a pear tree.”